Community Service Spotlight: QuickChek, Parker’s & NOCO

NATIONAL REPORT -- Giving back through community service efforts and charity donations is a positive force that keeps many retailers and suppliers of this industry moving ahead. On a regular basis, Convenience Store News highlights these philanthropic efforts in this special section.

Here are the latest company spotlights:

Aloha Petroleum Ltd.

Aloha Petroleum made a $41,394 donation to the American Heart Association. Contributions were raised through a combination of in-store donations by customers and employee fundraising.

The company also recently donated $10,000 to PBS Hawaii for the public television station’s future home, which will be completed in 2016. The existing one-story structure will be renovated and expanded to include a second story for a total of 30,000 square feet under one roof.

NOCO Express

Throughout the month of September, NOCO, its customers and its employees raised $22,436 to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Western & Central New York Chapter.

The fundraising campaign kicked off at the beginning of September when NOCO employees were on hand at four NOCO Express locations to pump gas and wash windows for customers in exchange for a donation. Throughout the month, customers could make a $1 donation at any of NOCO Express’ 37 locations, and NOCO employees at the company’s corporate offices and bulk plants conducted dress-down days and silent auctions to raise more funds.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Western & Central New York Chapter currently funds two blood-cancer research projects in the region and serves more than 5,000 local patients who have been touched by the blood cancers leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

The Parker Cos.

The 2014 Parker’s Fueling the Community Charity Golf Tournament, held in late October, raised $70,708 to benefit Savannah-area schools. The tournament attracted 144 players from across the region, including a number of Parker’s vendors, suppliers and supporters.

Proceeds benefit Georgia and South Carolina schools in areas where Parker’s operates convenience stores. Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools is one of them, as Parker’s recently presented it with a $10,000 Fueling the Community check at the Savannah-Chatham County Board of Education meeting in early November.

In addition to the annual golf tournament, Parker’s donates 1 cent of every gallon of gas purchased at its convenience stores on the first Wednesday of the month to area schools through its ongoing Fueling the Community program.

Pilot Flying J

Pilot Flying J founder Jim Haslam and the Haslam family gifted $50 million to the University of Tennessee to endow the college, where Haslam was a business student and football player. Unlike most donations to universities, the Haslams offered the gift without any earmarks.

The interest from the endowment will likely be used to recruit top faculty and staff to help propel the school into national prominence, according to Dean Steve Mangum.

QuickChek Corp.

QuickChek employees helped thousands of families in need by volunteering at local community food banks before Thanksgiving.

Fifty-six volunteers from the company’s headquarters and various stores bagged 1,800 pounds of pasta in a single day, enough to feed 6,200 families, at the Community Food Bank of New Jersey in Hillside. Twenty-five volunteers from the company’s headquarters and various stores also sorted and boxed a variety of food donations at the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley in Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, N.Y.

Both the Community Food Bank of New Jersey and the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley are members of Feeding America, the nation’s largest network of food banks. 

In other company news, QuickChek raised $75,000 to support post-9/11 service members and their families through a recent in-store donation program that lasted four weeks. Store customers were invited to purchase dog-tag shaped magnets for $1 from Aug. 30 through Sept. 27 to benefit Hope For The Warriors. 

The nonprofit organization's mission is to enhance the quality of life for post-9/11 service members, their families, and families of the fallen who have sustained physical and psychological wounds in the line of duty.